1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a design support method and a design support program for supporting the mechanism control design. More particularly, the invention relates to a design support program and a design support method for the software of controlling a conveyance mechanism for conveying a sheet-like carrier.
2. Related Background Art
Conventionally, the conveyance of the sheet-like carrier such as paper (hereinafter simply referred to as paper) is performed in all the fields. For instance, the paper is conveyed by the conveyance mechanism comprising a roller and a guide in the image forming apparatus such as a copier and a printer.
In the conveyance of the paper, in many cases, the paper is rarely conveyed in only one direction simply at an equal velocity. Usually, employing a virtual sensor for detecting the position of the carrier, for example, the paper is stopped at a prescribed position, or reversed in the direction of conveyance by reversely rotating the roller. Accordingly, the software for controlling the mechanism that conveys the paper is indispensable in conveying the paper.
In recent years, it is expressed that the image forming apparatus has higher performance and higher productivity, and correspondingly, the software for controlling the image forming apparatus is complicated, increasing the man-hour required for finding a trouble, specifying the cause, and making correction.
Thus, the chance of using the simulation technology in designing the conveyance mechanism has increased along with the enhanced performance of the computer in recent years. For instance, a system for calculating the action of paper by simulation, and finding the defect potential in the conveyance mechanism has been proposed as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H9-81600.
Moreover, the proposals concerning the inspection of the software for controlling the mechanism have been made while the mechanism simulation is active in all scenes. For the inspection of the software, the reproduction of irregular situations is indispensable, in addition to the simulation of the basic operation of the paper. Because an error in software often occurs during the irregular operation rather than in the basic portion.
In the light of the above respect, a design support method for generating an external event of turning on/off the switch or opening or closing the cover in the printer control software from an input device such as a keyboard has been proposed as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H5-143260.
However, a paper out state of the cassette storing the paper could not be reproduced in the simulator for the software inspection in the past.
When the paper feed from the cassette stages is inspected, the software is often troublesome in the paper out state, for which the inspection of software is indispensable. For instance, if the paper out state occurs in a certain cassette, it is required to inspect from which cassette to feed the paper at the next time.
Moreover, when the paper is fed from different cassettes after the paper out state of the cassette turns out, the paper feed timing is delayed from the usual paper feed, involving a difficult sequence concerning how to absorb a difference in the timing.
Further, in the paper out state of the cassette, most problems often occur at the specific timings, such as “there is a problem when the paper out occurs at specific sequence number of paper in feeding the paper”. In the paper out state, it is necessary to reproduce the phenomenon at the specific timings.